‘TWISTING IN THE WIND’

NYT Sports Staff Demand to Know if They’re Being Replaced

The department sent a letter to newspaper brass about whether it will be subsumed by The Athletic.

The New York Times sports department fears that it may soon be shut down, with employees firing off a letter to the paper’s brass on Sunday demanding answers. The Washington Post reports that the letter complained the staff has been left “twisting in the wind” following the acquisition of The Athletic. “We have watched the company buy a competitor with hundreds of sportswriters and weigh decisions about the future of sports coverage at The Times without, in many instances, so much as a courtesy call, let alone any solicitation of our expertise,” they wrote. “The company’s efforts appear to be coming to a head, with The Times pursuing a full-scale technological migration of The Athletic to The Times’ platforms and the threat that the company will effectively shut down our section.”